


Whatever a Spider Can

by bmw4fh1017



Series: After the Winter Soldier [6]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Canon divergence - Spider-Man Homecoming, Established Relationship, M/M, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 10:42:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20006992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmw4fh1017/pseuds/bmw4fh1017
Summary: Just a normal night/morning for your friendly neighborhood Spider-manHis father may not know what he's doing after school, but he's always got support from Uncle Bucky and Uncle Steve.





	Whatever a Spider Can

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place around the time as the first MCU Spider-Man movie so 2017-ish.
> 
> I have Peter's super hero origin happen sometime during the events of Age of Ultron since we don't really know much about that timeline in the MCU. Bucky was with Peter so both are out of the picture while the Ultron events are mostly unchanged from canon. Either way, that's why Bucky and Steve know Spider-man's identity.

It was about seven pm on a Friday night when Peter noticed the time. Not too late for his dad to be worried, but it would be by the time he got home. Taking out his phone he texted his dad.

Peter: Can I stay at uncle bucky and uncle steve’s tonight?  
Tony: did you ask them?  
Peter: they said yes.  
Tony: Ok. I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.  
Peter: thanks  
Peter: can you buy me another backpack?  
Tony: sure

Peter slipped his phone into the pocket of his uniform. It wasn’t really a uniform. Nothing close to the ones the Avengers wore. His dad had designed or redesigned all of those. And it’s not like he could ask his dad to make him one. Tony had no idea he was Spider-man and hopefully didn’t even know that Spider-man existed.

That’s why he had chosen Queens. It was far enough away from Manhattan that he could avoid his dad whenever he came to the city from upstate. And it was close enough to Brooklyn that he could stay at Uncle Steve and Uncle Bucky’s whenever he was out too late patrolling. Or if he needed a safe place to stay if he ever got a bruise or cut he wouldn’t be able to explain away to Iron Man. (Queens also was home to the Mets; the only New York baseball team Uncle Steve and Uncle Bucky would let him root for).

The Winter Soldier and Captain America were the only two superheroes who knew who Spider-man was. Well, they technically weren’t super heroes anymore. But they were the only ones who Peter trusted with his secret. Uncle Bucky was there when he was bit by the spider. Peter was glad it had been him. After an initial freak-out and a trip to the emergency room, Bucky had acted strangely calm to the kid’s new abilities. As for Uncle Steve: he understood Peter’s need to beat up the local bullies who roamed the burrows. Let Iron Man and War Machine get all the aliens, the killer robots and all other big threats; he worked on a smaller level.

Peter never officially asked his uncles if he could sleep over. It was an agreement that he could come over whenever he needed to. They even left the window to their living room unlocked so Peter could come in without disturbing anyone. But part of the agreement included that if Peter came in he had to leave a note on their nightstand if Iron Man was coming to pick him up.

The first time Peter snuck in, a half-asleep Winter Soldier opened the door in the morning to a very awake Tony Stark. Thankfully, by the time Bucky was actually awake, he had caught on that Peter had spent the night and given his dad the idea that his uncles knew where he was.

This night, the apartment wasn’t totally dark as he closed the window as quietly as possible around 11 pm. Uncle Bucky was seated on the couch reading by the light of the muted TV and the glow of the street lights outside.

“Hey, Petey,” said Bucky as Peter took off his Spider-man mask.

“Hey, Uncle Bucky,” Peter replied, “What are you doing out here?”

“It’s only eleven o’clock, kid,” Bucky chuckled.

“You guys are usually in your room by the time I come in,” Peter pointed out.

“True,” Bucky nodded, “Doesn’t mean we’re asleep. We usually hear you come in.”

“So why aren’t you with Uncle Steve?” Peter asked.

“I can’t read when I’m with him. He gets nosey. Tries talking to me. Things like that,” Bucky explained.

Peter acknowledged this explanation and left to change out of his spider-man uniform. He always left a few pairs of pajamas at his uncles’ apartment. It’s not like he could be picked up in his Spider-man uniform in the morning. Sure, it didn’t look like anything impressive without the hood, but his dad would get suspicious if he only ever wore this one outfit when he slept over in Brooklyn.

When he returned to the living room uncle Bucky had shifted over to the side of the couch and patted the seat next to him. Peter smiled and sat next to the Winter Soldier who put his book down to talk to the young hero.

“So did you have a good day?” Bucky asked. He knew Peter lived to spill his guts about his adventures. There only existed two people in the world who he could do this with. And the other one was being a little shit that night— according to Bucky, of course.

“It was so awesome, Uncle Bucky,” Peter grinned, “There was this one bad guy who stole this lady’s purse, see? She was old, and no one even tried to help her. So I swooped down and landed in front of the guy and was like, ‘That’s pretty girly for my taste, man. But I’m not one to judge.’ You should have seen his face! He was so shocked. Then he said, ‘Move, kid!’ And I was like, ‘I think you should hand that purse to me.’ And he asked, ‘Are you gonna make me?’ And I said, ‘Yeah!’ And got him with my web and plucked the purse away from him. He let out such a high-pitched scream when he got covered with the web. It was so funny!”

“Sounds like you had fun, then,” Bucky smiled in reply. He had always been proud of Peter and whatever accomplishments he came home with. Whether it was a decathlon trophy, the time he actually spoke to his crush without his voice cracking, and more recently— Spider-man.

“It was the best night!” Peter was practically exploding with glee.

“Better than all the other best nights?” Bucky asked.

Peter stopped bouncing to think for a second, “Yes!” the smile returned on his face, “I think I’m finally starting to get a hang of this hero thing.”

“I’m happy for you,” Bucky patted his shoulder affectionately.

“Hey, can you do me a favor?”

“Do you need me to get your bag again?” Bucky asked, rolling his eyes.

“Not the bag, already asked dad for another,” Peter explained, “Just the stuff inside.”

“Petey, that’s like the fifth ‘new bag’ this month. What does your dad think you’re doing with them? Isn’t it a little suspicious that the bag is ruined but you always have the things the bag carries?”

“Nah,” Peter dismissed with a wave of his hand, “If dad asks, he quickly says, ‘I don’t wanna know’ the second I open my mouth.”

“I’ll never understand that man,” Bucky muttered, getting up from the couch to fetch the small pocket knife he kept in his nightstand.

“Thank you!” Peter called out from the living room.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bucky smiled, ruffling the kid’s hair as he made his way through the living room to the front door, “Same place?”

“Same place,” Peter nodded.

“You know, one day your dad is going to put a GPS tracker on your bags. What do you expect me to do then?” Bucky asked.

“Crush the tracker in your left hand?” Peter suggested.

“I could do that,” Bucky said after a second of thought, closing the door behind him.

Bucky returned later that night with Peter’s school supplies and clothes from his bag; cursing as he peeled some webbing which had gotten stuck to his metal hand. Peter had fallen asleep on the couch with the TV still on. Bucky slipped the remote out of Peter’s grip to turn it off. He placed the kid’s supplies where his spare clothes were kept and disappeared into his own room.

The next morning, Bucky awoke to the sun shining in his eyes and an empty bed. He clumsily stumbled into the kitchen where Steve was reading his speech out loud to Peter over breakfast.

The Discovery Museum in New York was opening a temporary Captain America exhibit like the permanent one in DC. Though they planned on one-upping the one in the capital because along with his more recent Avengers accomplishments, their exhibit included actual input from Captain America. Steve had been working on the speech for the opening night all week and had finally finished it at around two in the morning. How he was fully awake at nine, Bucky had no idea.

Bucky poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, not wanting to distract Steve. Peter looked over to Bucky and waved to him. Bucky smiled in reply, too tired to do anything else.

Steve finally put his speech down on the table and looked up at Bucky, “Did you make the bed, Buck?”

“That’s it? That’s all I get? No ‘good morning, Buck’? No ‘have a nice sleep, Buck’? Just ‘did you make the bed, Buck?’”

“Did you?” Steve questioned.

“Of course not!” Bucky exclaimed, “You’re the one who wants it made, so you should make it.”

“C’mon, Buck,” Steve sighed, “We have an agreement, whoever gets up last makes the bed.”

“So that’s why you’re an early riser,” Bucky grumbled, leaving his coffee on the kitchen table. He turned back to Peter and warned, “Don’t drink any of this, kid. I don’t want you to annoy your dad with any extra energy. On second thought. There’s still coffee in the pot, go crazy.”

Bucky started to make the bed after flopping face first into the mattress and laying there for a few minutes. In that time heard the door open. He peeked out of the bedroom to see Tony Stark walk in.

“Hey, dad!” Peter greeted from the kitchen, still shoving cheerios into his mouth.

“Hey, Petey!” Tony Stark smiled widely for his son, but Bucky noticed how tired he looked— probably another sleepless night for Iron man.

“Pete, why don’t you go brush your teeth, so you don’t keep your dad waiting,” Bucky walked out of his room and made himself noticed by the rest of the apartment.

“But I just had orange juice,” Peter tried to argue holding up his half-full glass.

“Should have thought about that beforehand,” Bucky suggested.

Peter looked at his Uncle Steve, who just shrugged, before disappearing into the bathroom.

“So, Tony,” Steve said, getting up to place a hand on Stark’s shoulder, “When was the last time you slept?”

So Steve had noticed it too.

“I’ve had a lot of work to do,” Tony not directly answering the question, “You know you’re always welcome to rejoin the avengers.”

“I’m doing fine here, Tony,” Steve smiled, “A good family. A calm life. I didn’t think I’d enjoy it, but now I can’t imagine giving it up.”

“So what’d you do instead of sleeping last night, Iron Coke-can?” Bucky asked.

“I’ve been playing with nano-tech. Thinking I can make it into a new suit-”

“That’s pretty cool-”

“But then I got distracted by YouTube videos,” Tony finished.

“Oh,” said Steve, “That’s slightly less productive.”

“Well I did find this interesting video,” Tony pulled out his iPhone and opened the YouTube app.

Steve and Bucky shared a silent look as the video showed Spider-man stopping a car from crashing into a bus.

“Woah,” Steve said, trying to sound impressed.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed, “He’d make a good addition to the Avengers don’t you think? This Spider-ling, Spider-boy, crime fighting spider…”

“Spider-man,” Bucky said under his breath. He couldn’t help but defend Peter; even if the kid wasn’t in the room.

“So you’ve heard of him?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Bucky said a little louder, “He comes around here sometimes. Mostly operates in Queens, though.”

Steve gave him a look to shut up. Bucky shrugged guiltily.

“I wonder what his deal is. His superpowers, I mean,” Tony thought aloud, replaying the video, “Like what can he do?”

“Whatever a spider can…?” Bucky suggested.

“Hey, what’re you lookin’ at?” Peter asked, bounding out of the bathroom. His face turned bright red as he watched himself on his dad’s phone.

“You ever see this guy, Pete?” Tony asked, “Terminator over here says he’s in this area sometimes.”

“Oh. Um. Well, I’ve never seen him myself. But um. People at school talk about him. Like they’ve seen him or… stuff…” Peter stumbled. Bucky had to stop himself from smacking the kid in the back of the head.

Tony eyed him, “Well, I was thinking about offering him an invitation to the Avengers. Cool, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Totally awesome,” Peter nodded, “He’d love to. Probably. I mean, who doesn’t want to be an avenger. Right?”

Tony looked between Steve and Bucky who both avoided his gaze.

“Okay, so go grab your things, kid and say goodbye to your Uncles.” Tony handed Peter a new backpack.

Peter quickly left the group.

“Hey, thanks letting him stay over here all the time,” Tony said to Bucky and Steve, “I try to be around for him as much as possible. Can’t end up like Howard, you know? But it’s nice knowing that he always has somewhere to go where he knows he’s loved.”

“It’s never a problem,” Steve assured, “We don’t mind taking care of Peter. As long as you start taking better care of yourself. Sleep sometimes, okay?”

“I know,” Tony agreed, “That’s what Pepper is always saying. Think it’s time I start listening to her.”

“So when are you gonna tell Peter you proposed to her last week?” Steve asked quietly.

“When he tells me his secret, I’ll tell him mine,” Tony answered.

Steve and Bucky looked at each other with startled expressions.

“Are you mad we didn’t tell you?” Steve finally asked.

“Nah,” Tony shook his head, “I said it before: thanks for giving him a place to stay— a place to feel safe.”

Peter returned with his school supplies in his bag, hugging his uncles and followed his dad out the door.

Bucky shut the door and looked back at Steve one last time.

“So…” Steve said after a long silence, “Did you finish making the bed?”

Back at the Avengers compound, Peter ran up to his room; after almost crashing into Vision, and Rhodey, and Nat.

He threw his bag in the corner and was about to collapse on his bed when he noticed a silver case on his desk. He got up to examine it.

Laying on top was a small piece of paper: A minor upgrade -Dad.

He flipped open the latch and watched as the case opened itself.

A brand-new Spider-man suit, designed by Tony Stark himself, stared back at him.

**Author's Note:**

> Tony knew! Of course he did, he's a genius. And a little nod to the Tony and Pepper like in the actual Spider-Man movie. As for seven pm being too late for Peter to be out: if he's in Queens and Tony's upstate that's at least a two hour trip-- by train. And I don't think anxiety-ridden Tony Stark would like his kid out in Queens so late.
> 
> On a side note: as a NY Mets fan, nothing was better than seeing the Mike Piazza banner in Peter's room in the first Spidey movie because he WOULD be a Mets fan. Even though the 2019 baseball season has proved Peter Parker is no longer the best Peter in Queens (Pete Alonso, anyone...?)
> 
> I also grew up going to the Discovery Museum exhibits in NY and they would totally have done a Captain America exhibit.


End file.
